Sensors on my bed: the ups and downs of in-home monitoring

Abstract

Australia's increasing aged population is associated with rises in health expenditure and residential care costs, creating a public health challenge. This challenge can be met with in-home monitoring systems that allow older people to live at home longer. There is, however, a dearth of knowledge on how Australians feel about being monitored. Here we describe an ongoing study conducted with elderly residents as part of a smart home pilot. We aim to identify perceptions of the sensor-based in-home monitoring system throughout the pilot, from conception to completion. In this paper, we provide our preliminary findings of initial reactions to the technology and contributions made by prospective residents at pre-pilot workshops. We found participants favoured system flexibility and enhanced family communication and that undesirable aspects could be circumvented or solved by our researchers. Much of the participant feedback was incorporated into the design of the pilot and the associated technologies. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.